Dumbing up

Advertising on public television is soon to be a thing of the past here in France. A couple of weeks ago the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, announced his intention to scrap commercials on the country’s five state-owned channels. He also wants to drop the English and Arabic sections of the fledgling international news broadcaster, France 24.

It’s hard exactly to follow the thinking behind Sarkozy’s decision. He claims he wants to raise the standard of programming and prevent the main public station, France 2, from becoming a carbon copy of its independent rival, TF1.

Seems a bit rich really coming from a man whose idea of a cultural highlight appears to be a day out at Eurodisney.

Still, Sarkozy has apparently discovered a taste for culture and clearly believes the rest of the country should share it.

But is that really the thinking behind his move or is there some other more sinister motive in play?

Just take a look at the manner in which the president revealed his plans. Two weeks ago at a press conference he surprised everyone with the news, especially Patrick de Carolis, the head of France 2.

De Carolis had been invited to attend, but cancelled at the last moment, which was probably just as well because it gave him a chance to collect his thoughts and avoid total public humiliation. That’s right Sarkozy hadn’t given him the slightest inkling of his plans ahead of time.

Personal payback perhaps for de Carolis who is a long time close friend of the former president, Jacques Chirac - not exactly Sarkozy’s favourite person in the world.

Then of course there is the extra revenue boost the move will give to TF1 – its share price has already soared – owned strangely enough by one of Sarkozy’s cronies. And the persistent rumours – fervently denied – that the government’s real aim is for the privatisation of France 2.

Whatever the reasoning might be, the financial repercussions cannot be overlooked and how exactly the government intends to fill the hole left by the loss of revenue is somewhat fuzzy.

Advertising currently brings in France 2 €800 million a year. The culture and communications minister, Christine Albanel, insists that there will be no increase in the licence fee. Instead the shortfall in revenue will be met by a new tax on all audio-visual equipment and other forms of media including computers, mobile phones and Internet providers.

So although there’ll be no hike in the licence, the general public will in fact be asked to dig deeper into their pockets. That’ll come as great news at a time when households will anyway be forced to buy new televisions as France follows the European-wide switchover to digital broadcasting.

While the government insists that ratings shouldn’t be the defining mechanism for programme schedules, it remains something of a mystery as to how exactly France 2 will be able to afford the longed-for “quality” television.

The production costs for example of its much heralded recent dramatisation of a Guy de Maupassant novel cost the equivalent of €1.2 million per hour. The price tag for 60 minutes-worth of an imported sure-fire US hit is just €80,000.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that unless the government is able to magic-up money from its declared empty coffers, France 2 is going to be hard pushed to provide viewers with anything other than television on the cheap.

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